SW31
Songster
Good afternoon from sunny SW France. I am a new henkeeper, having bought four, four month old hens in July 2017. Husband wasn’t keen on the idea but as you will read later has been a star. French chicken keeping neighbours have been extremely helpful, they have a lot of experience and a large flock.
Warning bit of a long read!
I keep them in an Omlet cube with an attached 2 metre enclosed run. They are then let out each day in an enclosed area using a 50 metre electric powered fence. All good so far.
Now ready for the ‘ how stupid can you be bit’ I let them out each day into our large garden, usually supervised with no problems - no problems since July last year. Our elderly neighbour decided to get a new dog last autumn. Needless to say the dog entered our garden and badly attacked two of our chickens on 2nd January. The third one alerted me to the problem.
Hence hens in the hall title. Our vet did a truly amazing job and kept them for eight days; they are covered in staples and stitches. Vet felt they would survive so our view was to support them as much as we could. We knew our hall was big enough to house them; it’s too cold here at night to leave them outside as they’ve lost so much winter plumage and the garage is cold and dark. Our vet went on holiday on 13th and will return this Friday; a relief vet is currently in place.
We then brought them home on the 10th. We bought an omlet go house with a 2 metre run and borrowed a cage from the vet as they had to be kept separate. For the next ten days husband has been injecting them with antibiotics, cleaning wound with antiseptic lotion and putting a sulfureux based cream on all the wounds and new skin.
Vet said now stop antibiotics on Monday but must continue with antiseptic lotion as it’s now the only protection and the cream. We also put the two birds back into one run on Sunday which made them a lot happier.
They are picky eaters. I give them high quality organic pellets, grated emmental cheese and, in late afternoon, corn and mixed seeds. Occasionally I add chopped ham or cooked hamburger pieces, tomatoes to the cheese. This is the same diet they have had since last August. When I gave them cheese, a little chopped ham and hamburger today for the first time since the attack we were amazed at the noises they were making. They clearly liked their treat. I also gave them this afternoon some new season dandelion leaves which they liked.
The injured hens are now eating better. They get a bit ‘stir crazy’ in the run and like to be let out and one kicks up quite a racket. We now have a system where cat is locked in the room she’s sleeping in, most downstairs doors are closed so they can walk around the hall and into our kitchen. We then pick them up and put them on a large towel, on the worktop, for treatment. The worst injured hen shakes badly at first. They are fairly good, not struggling as we think the cream soothes their skin.
Questions:
1). They’ve both got very red bottoms that look very sore- it looks worse as the day goes on so husband puts lots of cream on their bums. As I quietly say to them he’s putting cream on their touche they seem calm! We don’t know what’s causing the redness, any ideas.
2). Chicken poo is usually very watery, little white, yellow and green. Sometimes brown but not very often. Our vet warned we could have some issues due to the antibiotics. Is this type of poo what you would expect.
3). Chicken with the least injuries keeps going into nesting area - I thought she would be far to stressed to want to do ‘an eggy’.
4). How can we stop them getting bored.
5). How long will it take for their feathers to appear. I suddenly realised it’s not just the cold that will be a problem. Here, in the midi Pyrenees the air is less polluted so uv damage with sunburn could be a problem!
Many thanks for your help.
Warning bit of a long read!
I keep them in an Omlet cube with an attached 2 metre enclosed run. They are then let out each day in an enclosed area using a 50 metre electric powered fence. All good so far.
Now ready for the ‘ how stupid can you be bit’ I let them out each day into our large garden, usually supervised with no problems - no problems since July last year. Our elderly neighbour decided to get a new dog last autumn. Needless to say the dog entered our garden and badly attacked two of our chickens on 2nd January. The third one alerted me to the problem.
Hence hens in the hall title. Our vet did a truly amazing job and kept them for eight days; they are covered in staples and stitches. Vet felt they would survive so our view was to support them as much as we could. We knew our hall was big enough to house them; it’s too cold here at night to leave them outside as they’ve lost so much winter plumage and the garage is cold and dark. Our vet went on holiday on 13th and will return this Friday; a relief vet is currently in place.
We then brought them home on the 10th. We bought an omlet go house with a 2 metre run and borrowed a cage from the vet as they had to be kept separate. For the next ten days husband has been injecting them with antibiotics, cleaning wound with antiseptic lotion and putting a sulfureux based cream on all the wounds and new skin.
Vet said now stop antibiotics on Monday but must continue with antiseptic lotion as it’s now the only protection and the cream. We also put the two birds back into one run on Sunday which made them a lot happier.
They are picky eaters. I give them high quality organic pellets, grated emmental cheese and, in late afternoon, corn and mixed seeds. Occasionally I add chopped ham or cooked hamburger pieces, tomatoes to the cheese. This is the same diet they have had since last August. When I gave them cheese, a little chopped ham and hamburger today for the first time since the attack we were amazed at the noises they were making. They clearly liked their treat. I also gave them this afternoon some new season dandelion leaves which they liked.
The injured hens are now eating better. They get a bit ‘stir crazy’ in the run and like to be let out and one kicks up quite a racket. We now have a system where cat is locked in the room she’s sleeping in, most downstairs doors are closed so they can walk around the hall and into our kitchen. We then pick them up and put them on a large towel, on the worktop, for treatment. The worst injured hen shakes badly at first. They are fairly good, not struggling as we think the cream soothes their skin.
Questions:
1). They’ve both got very red bottoms that look very sore- it looks worse as the day goes on so husband puts lots of cream on their bums. As I quietly say to them he’s putting cream on their touche they seem calm! We don’t know what’s causing the redness, any ideas.
2). Chicken poo is usually very watery, little white, yellow and green. Sometimes brown but not very often. Our vet warned we could have some issues due to the antibiotics. Is this type of poo what you would expect.
3). Chicken with the least injuries keeps going into nesting area - I thought she would be far to stressed to want to do ‘an eggy’.
4). How can we stop them getting bored.
5). How long will it take for their feathers to appear. I suddenly realised it’s not just the cold that will be a problem. Here, in the midi Pyrenees the air is less polluted so uv damage with sunburn could be a problem!
Many thanks for your help.
